Sighting in Mougins, August 8, 2015

At about 2 a.m. on a Saturday, a person at home watched about fifty small disks drift past in silence. They were a milky white at first, then turned a pewter grey. The witness watched them with the naked eye and then through binoculars for 8 to 10 minutes. The group moved slowly, with a wavering motion, along a straight path. Some of the disks gradually pulled away from the group, ahead of it and behind it. The whole formation slowly passed out of the witness's field of view. No one else reported the phenomenon to the GEIPAN.

The investigation compared the scene to festive lights carried by the wind, either illuminated balloons or Thai lanterns, probably released nearby at the end of a private party. The white and then grey colour points more towards helium balloons lit by LEDs. The disks moved from the north-east towards the north, which matches the light north to north-north-easterly wind recorded at Cannes-Mandelieu. That wind was blowing almost straight at the witness, which made the objects seem to advance very slowly. Tracing whoever released them is extremely difficult in an urban area. The GEIPAN classified the case B: probable sighting of illuminated balloons.